This invention relates to a tuning apparatus for stringed instruments which is initially designed particularly for use with a guitar but which can be adapted for use with any other stringed instrument in which the string is tuned by turning a tuning peg.
Various proposals have been made previously for devices for use in tuning guitars. For example U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,180 (Scholz) discloses a device which is attached to a stringed musical instrument and which tightens or loosens each of the instruments strings by sensing the tension of the associated string and comparing the sensed tension with a reference tension corresponding to the desired tuning for the string. Such a device does however require an individual apparatus for each of the strings and has not achieved significant success in the market place. U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,124 (Rosado) discloses an arrangement in which diodes are illuminated when a particular string is tuned so that the user can adjust the tension of the string until the diode properly is illuminated. However this device again is unsatisfactory in that it is difficult for the inexperienced user to locate the required position and to ensure that the string is properly tuned.
Yet further arrangements are disclosed in German Patent Application No. 3509662 and U.K. Patent application No. 2,049,226, both of which discloses a device attached inside the guitar for operating on the string at the bridge end of the string to automatically obtain tuning of the string.
None of these devices has achieved significant commercial success and none is suitable for the average user of a guitar since it requires either skilled operation or highly complex and expensive devices provided wholly within the guitar.